Yesterday’s “Boston Herald” newspaper has an interesting Michael Graham opinion/editorial piece regarding the latest Boston gun buyback proposal, made in response to last week’s shooting of a 9 year old by his 14 year old brother in a home that at a charitable best would be described as dysfunctional:
“On my BostonHeraldRadio.com show yesterday, GOAL’s Jim Wallace pointed out that since the draconian 1998 “gun control” laws were passed in Massachusetts, legal gun ownership has fallen 80 percent, but the rate of gun crime has soared by 200 percent even as the nation as a whole has seen gun crime fall. This is precisely the outcome one would expect when a state makes it harder for the good guys to carry guns, but refuses to do anything more serious than offer Target gift cards to the bad guys. And so Massachusetts has a much higher gun crime rate than its northern neighbors of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, despite the fact that it’s much harder to own a gun here. Legally own one, that is. How do Massachusetts liberals respond? With still more gun laws, and a buyback program. Why not do something that would have an impact on gun-related crime? For example, simply enforce current laws that call for mandatory jail time for anyone caught illegally in possession of a handgun. That would have an immediate impact by: • putting a bunch of gun criminals behind bars, and • making crooks less likely to carry a gun for fear of jail time. But it would also disproportionately send young, minority males to prison. So local liberals won’t insist on it. Which is why a week or month or year from now we’ll be having the same conversation about the same problem and wondering, “Gee, why hasn’t this gotten better?””
Caption: "We think Satan enters our dimension through this orifice right here."
ReplyDeleteAllthewayto11
Yesterday’s “Boston Herald” newspaper has an interesting Michael Graham opinion/editorial piece regarding the latest Boston gun buyback proposal, made in response to last week’s shooting of a 9 year old by his 14 year old brother in a home that at a charitable best would be described as dysfunctional:
ReplyDeletehttp://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2014/02/graham_gun_buyback_lacks_aim
“On my BostonHeraldRadio.com show yesterday, GOAL’s Jim Wallace pointed out that since the draconian 1998 “gun control” laws were passed in Massachusetts, legal gun ownership has fallen 80 percent, but the rate of gun crime has soared by 200 percent even as the nation as a whole has seen gun crime fall.
This is precisely the outcome one would expect when a state makes it harder for the good guys to carry guns, but refuses to do anything more serious than offer Target gift cards to the bad guys.
And so Massachusetts has a much higher gun crime rate than its northern neighbors of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, despite the fact that it’s much harder to own a gun here. Legally own one, that is.
How do Massachusetts liberals respond? With still more gun laws, and a buyback program.
Why not do something that would have an impact on gun-related crime? For example, simply enforce current laws that call for mandatory jail time for anyone caught illegally in possession of a handgun. That would have an immediate impact by:
• putting a bunch of gun criminals behind bars, and
• making crooks less likely to carry a gun for fear of jail time.
But it would also disproportionately send young, minority males to prison. So local liberals won’t insist on it.
Which is why a week or month or year from now we’ll be having the same conversation about the same problem and wondering, “Gee, why hasn’t this gotten better?””